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f you sit on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls border long enough, you'll learn an awful lot about this country. And, I do mean awful.

One of the most obvious of these is the Canadian obsession with gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, or SUVs.

On any given day, a glut of them clog the lines of cars waiting to cross from the U.S. back into this country.

Another awful truth to stare you in the face will be the smog those SUVs bring and how it hangs over Ontario's only claim to geographical fame — the Falls.

But, more awful than anything else you'll find at that busy border is the treatment visible minorities endure at the hands of Canada Customs and Immigration officials.

Over a 90-minute period on June 5, I observed that 46 per cent of those visible minorities crossing into Canada had their cars and/or passports searched by Canada Customs and Immigration officials.

Only two per cent of whites crossing the same border, over the same time, were subjected to that search.

But you can crunch those numbers another way: Of the 31 visible minorities driving across the border during my survey, 14 presented passports and declared American purchases but were still asked to submit to car searches and passport double- checks.

How remarkable then that only 8 of the 288 whites driving their cars across that border failed to immediately convince custom officials of their right to enter the country or that they were not, in fact, sneaking in undeclared merchandise.

An obvious question comes to mind: Why did the minorities get the majority of inspections?

It was question I posed to the regional director for Canada Customs at Fort Erie-Niagara, John Johnson.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that a reporter secretly counting cars and squinting to identify their drivers' race is iffy, to say the least.

For one thing, 8 of the 319 cars coming across the border had tinted windows; for another, I didn't count the couple who cycled across on a tandem bike, nor the bikers who barrelled across on choppers. All of them were waved through without secondary inspections. All of them, by the way, were white.

So, yes, my survey is unscientific. But does it represent the kind of racial profiling visible minorities claim to suffer in their dealing with Canada's border officials?

It's the kind of discrimination a British woman, of African descent, claims she was subjected to at the hands of Pearson immigration officials, who detained her because, one said, "she did not look British.''

Johnson rejected any such charge of racism in this case.

"At the Rainbow Bridge, we deal with a lot of foreign passport holders, many of whom are refugee claimants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East," he said. "We have to check their credentials. It is not racial profiling.''

Johnson then suggested I conduct another survey at the same time and place, but on the following day. His officers would be given the heads-up this time.

I agreed.

The next day, only 12 per cent of visible minorities — and not the previous day's 46 per cent — were asked to submit to secondary inspections by Canada Customs and Immigration officials.

Eleven per cent of the white drivers — and not the two per cent from the day before — also faced the dreaded secondary search of car and/or passport.

British envoy to probe woman's airport ordeal`He said you don't sound British to me,' visitor saysTinuola Modupe Adewola Akintade says she was handcuffed, detained and humiliated by Canadian immigration officials - all because she didn't look or sound British enough.

The 33-year-old British citizen arrived at Pearson International Airport Wednesday evening to visit a friend who was about to give birth.

But after an immigration officer questioned the authenticity of her passport, she said, she was questioned for about 10 hours, held overnight at an immigration detention centre and prevented from contacting British diplomatic officials.

A spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The British deputy high commissioner plans to look into the allegations made by Akintade, who was born in England to Nigerian parents but was raised in their homeland until she returned to her birthplace 4 1/2 years ago.

``On the face of it, this is a disturbing incident,'' Richard Codrington, Britain's deputy high commissioner to Canada said from Ottawa yesterday.

``We shall want to know more about it and seek some explanation from the Canadian authorities,'' Codrington said.

After arriving from London on a Canada 3000 flight, Akintade said she handed an immigration officer - whose identification number was 3419 - her maroon British passport.

He questioned its validity.

``He said you don't sound British to me. He said you have an accent you're not British,'' Akintade said.

A copy of the report written on the night of May 30 by the immigration officer who examined Akintade said he was suspicious because her ticket had be paid for by a friend, which Akintade said she later reimbursed.

The report noted Akintade refused to answer when asked if she had any health problems. ``It is none of your business. What do you want to know? Do you think I have AIDS?'' the report quoted Akintade as responding.

The registered psychiatric nurse said she told the immigration officer his statement was racist. ``I told him there are black Brits and Afro-Caribbeans and Asians, who are all British.''

Akintade said the immigration officer continued to questioned the authenticity of her passport, issued to her on Oct. 2, 1996 by the British High Commission in Lagos, Nigeria.

She said she then produced at least seven pieces of identification from her wallet to verify her residency in the United Kingdom.

``He said he was still not convinced.''

Akintade said after being left sitting in a waiting room for several hours, the same immigration officer reappeared and asked her: ``Are you still standing on those words that you're British?''

Akintade said she repeatedly asked immigration officials to allow her to get in contact with the British High Commission or consulate, but she was rebuffed. ``Finally at midnight, they told me its too late to call the consulate,'' Akintade said.

Codrington said he was troubled by the allegation a British citizen was denied adequate access to her consulate or high commission.

Ben Ogunleye waited for hours at Pearson's arrivals lounge wondering what had become of his wife's friend. He was anxious to pick her up and get back to Mount Sinai Hospital where his wife Jo-Anne was being induced into labour.

Ogunleye, who works as an insurance claims adjuster, said Canada has been good to him and his wife - a computer systems engineer - and he's not quick to complain. ``I don't play the race game. But I can't help thinking if this person was white, would it have happened?''

A copy of the May 30 report by the immigration officer who examined Akintade said he did not believe she was a ``genuine visitor'' to Canada.

``Ms. Tinuola Akintade knows little about Canada and does not have any specific plans to visit the country. She only wants to visit a friend, whom she claims is having a baby,'' the officer's report said. He also questioned the fact that she only had 45 pounds cash in her possession.

Akintade was in the operating theatre Friday night when her friend from middle-school Jo-Anne Ogunleye finally gave birth by C-section to a baby boy weighing eight pounds, one ounce. Akintade said she didn't bring much money because she was only coming to Canada for seven days and was just here to be with Ogunleye, not to go sightseeing.

Akintade said she was tired, hungry and frustrated after hours of questioning and she was particularly troubled when she was repeatedly asked whether she was in Canada to seek asylum.

But Akintade said the worst part of her ordeal was when security officers came to handcuff her to a man to transport detainees to the Celebrity Inn on Airport Rd. ``I refused. I said it's only criminals and thieves that you use handcuffs.''

She said under pressure and exhaustion she finally relented. Akintade said she spent a sleepless night at the inn reading her bible. Early the next morning, she said, she borrowed a phone card and called her boss in England and asked him to fax documents to immigration officials.

Handcuffed again and taken back to Pearson for an immigration hearing Thursday morning, Akintade said an officer asked her a multitude of questions, including how much she earned and what she did with her wages.

Akintade said the officer then told her they had received a fax from her hospital in London and they were willing to release her from custody.

OTTAWA (CP) - Wilson Pickett's management group says the renowned blues musician may never play Canada again after he was allegedly strip-searched for drugs at Ottawa airport, CBC Radio reported Wednesday.

Pickett, 60, is known for songs like In the Midnight Hour and Mustang Sally and travelled here last weekend to play at Bluesfest.

Mark Monahan, the event's executive director, said the treatment Pickett experienced makes it difficult to attract musicians to Canada.

''What it means is that musicians don't want to come here,'' Monahan told CBC. ''When someone gets treated like that, it just leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. Then the word spreads and it makes it more difficult for us to attract artists.''

Musicians are often treated differently at the border than other travellers, Bluesfest organizers say. Canada Customs would not comment on the specifics of the Pickett case, but a spokesperson said all travellers are subject to the same rules.

The legendary musician, nicknamed the Wicked Pickett, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

Charmaine Archer, 42, said she felt humiliated, powerless and violated after being forced to strip and let customs agents to examine her rectum. (Simon Gardner/CBC)

Ottawa Airport Strip Search Prompts Racism Allegations

A mother travelling with her four-year-old son is outraged that she was roughed up and strip searched at the Ottawa International Airport — an experience her travel agent says is all too common among black travellers.

Charmaine Archer, 42, returned home Tuesday night from a four-day trip to her grandmother's funeral in Jamaica. After customs officials pulled her aside and searched her belongings, she was told she would need to be strip searched because traces of drugs had been found on her toothbrush.

"I said to her, 'No way, that's not going to happen.' I said, 'You guys are going to have to arrest me,'" she said.

Her son was taken out of the room and she was told to turn around while she was handcuffed. She began screaming and crying, Archer said, but did not assault anyone or try to flee.

Border officials threw her to the ground, knelt on her shoulder, and then took her into another room and told her to call a lawyer before proceeding with the search, she recalled.

"I had to lift up my breasts, take off all my clothes, squat and cough and turn around and open up my rectum for them to see up inside,"

Archer told CBC News. "I was humiliated, I felt powerless, I felt violated, and just think it was a total overuse of power because there was absolutely no reason for them to behave that way with me."

After customs agents found nothing, they let Archer leave and rejoin her son and her husband, who had come to the airport to pick them up.

Archer said she has never had any run-ins with the law. When she asked why she was targeted for a search, she was told it was because she booked her tickets at the last minute, travelled only four days, and "obviously couldn't afford it" because she paid for half the tickets using her credit card.

While rifling through her belongings, a customs agent told her that traces of heroin and THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, were detected on her toothbrush.

Border guards also told her she travels too often, she said.

Archer said she goes to Jamaica once a year.

"It was definite racial profiling," Archer said, adding that the customs officials were all white and she didn't see any Caucasians being pulled aside. Officers may also have believed her weight made it easier for her to hide drugs on her body, she said.

The Canada Border Services Agency told CBC News that it does not use racial profiling. It declined to comment on Archer's specific case, citing privacy concerns, even after she gave the agency permission to release information about her to CBC News.

Ottawa airport has reputation: travel agentKerwin Dougan of Voyages G Travel, the agency that sold Archer her tickets, said the Ottawa airport has a bad reputation for targeting blacks.

Dougan said he has worked as a travel agent for two decades and heard dozens of cases similar to Archer's, mainly among black clients. That's why he encouraged Archer to go public with her story.

"The majority of Caribbean descent people coming through the Ottawa airport are randomly picked, randomly body searched, randomly harassed," he said, adding that many people he knows would rather drive to airports in Syracuse, Montreal and Toronto to avoid the hassle.

One problem may be that Ottawa is a smaller airport where customs agents are not as busy, he suggested.

"People always say in this world that Canada is not racist," he added. "I'm sorry, I sit behind this desk and I see it."

Black historian Howard Sheffield had to blink back tears. His lesson to a Collingwood grade two class had just been acclaimed "the best visit of the year".

As Sheffield, whose family arrived in Collingwood in 1857 via the Underground Railroad, recently told The Star, "A few years ago, no-one knew we [the black community] were up here. They didn't seem to want to know that we had been part of Collingwood from the beginning."

They didn't seem to want to know.

That's precisely the point made by feminist legal scholar Connie Backhouse in an interview a week earlier, when we discussed her recently published book Colour-Coded, A Legal History of Racism in Canada 1900-1950 (University of Toronto Press). "Canada has a mythology of racelessness," she said, "despite remarkable evidence to the contrary." Like snow blandly smoothing out the landscape, a blanket of whiteness seems to obliterate our true history.

Despite a long past of bigoted attitudes, acts and laws ---segregated schools didn't end in Ontario till 1965 - all mention of race is normally "whited out" of the legal records and history books. Backhouse quotes poet Dionne Brand, who once expressed astonishment at Canadians' "stupefying innocence". In the U.S., Brand said, "there is at least an admission of the fact that racism exists and has a history."

Maybe it's time that black history month was followed up with white education month? "We also need to know that there have always been Canadians who fought against racism," Backhouse said. "Usually, we gloss over the racism of earlier decades by saying we have to judge people by the standards of the times. No! There's plenty of evidence that others did reject racism and fight back." In other words, we should measure past deeds by the highest, not the lowest, standards of earlier times.

Backhouse's lively new history is at pains to point out that racism is not primarily about "isolated acts ...by individuals". Instead, it resonates through institutions like the legal system, through popular culture, through intellectual theory so accepted it seems immutable.

In 1930, when the white-hooded Ku Klux Klan rampaged through Oakville to burn a giant cross and break into a house to separate, forcibly, a supposedly "black" man from his presumably "white" fiance, they were praised by the media and complimented by the police chief, who shook their hands and recognized them as prominent Hamilton businessmen. The Toronto Star praised the "show of white justice" and the way the Klan had "escorted" the young woman "courteously and quietly" - though it backed down a bit later when it revealed the man was really of Indian ancestry. The Globe, The Hamilton Spectator and The London Free Press all echoed the tone of approval.

Only the local black leaders, Reform rabbi Maurice Eisendrath and William Templeton, white editor of the Guelph Mercury, crusaded passionately against the Klan's racism. When the Klan leaders were feebly charged with "wearing a disguise by night", only one of them was convicted and lightly punished.

Backhouse's book is packed with prickly revelations. When, in 1924, a Chinese cafe-owner in Regina challenged a law forbidding him to hire white women, most of Canada's liberal and progressive leadership seems to have gone mad with sexual frenzy. Chatelaine Magazine, magistrate Emily Murphy, the local Council of Women and the Regina Women's Labour League all spouted racist paranoia about the perils of white women in the clutches of "yellow" men.

Petite and elegant Viola Desmond, a black beautician and businesswoman from Halifax, was bodily dragged out of a New Glasgow movie for the crime of sitting downstairs in a seat she had paid for. She was manhandled, bruised and jailed overnight (she sat bolt upright all night, wearing her white gloves) before a travesty of a trial. Her later legal challenge of Canada's colour bar failed dismally ---and that was 1946.

Eliza Spero, a Mohawk widow and mother of eight, whose oldest son died in the trenches of World War One, went to court to protest the seizing of her costly seine net from reserve fishing grounds near Belleville. She, too, lost. A racist judge contemptuously dismissed Mohawk sovereignty and the guarantees offered by the Simcoe Deed. Still, in 1921, Spero had fought for sovereignty and her rights and was aided by an idealistic white lawyer.

If we want to break through the Canadian mythology of "racelessness" and come to grips with the whole of our past, both the splendid and the rotten, we could do no better than open Backhouse's book and, with open hearts, begin to read.

Yesterday, Cam'ron and Vado were preparing to spread their Harlem cheer to a crowd of fans in Montreal when border patrol agents barred them from entering the country. Citing both rappers' criminal pasts, the duo was stuck at a Toronto border crossing and eventually told to turn around.

"Been sittin in customs for the last hour, hopefully they let me threw. Stay tuned," tweeted Cam during the incident. "They just told [Vado] he has a felony, he cant come in da country and my dj either. I'm waitin to here to see what they tell me." After he was denied entry Killer Cam explained why. "This some real bulls---!! " he wrote. "We just was here a couple months ago! Sayin i had machine gun in 03. F---- makin s--- up."

Cam then sent out a hilarious video to dwell on the situation a bit more. He was clearly in a bummed-out mood. "See the flag," he said. "They shut me down... Oh, man. There goes the flag. This the country that did it to us. Montreal, we sorry, Toronto customs stuck us here."

The ban from Canada was also particularly odd as both Cam and Vado performed in Toronto over the summer at a party called The Caribana Bash.

Toronto - "Racial profiling has no place in our society. We have to stop debating the issue and start acting on it," was the key message delivered today by Chief Commissioner Keith Norton at the release of the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s report on the effects of racial profiling.

Entitled, Paying the Price: The Human Cost of Racial Profiling, the Report is based on over 400 personal accounts of experiences with profiling that individuals shared with the Commission during the course of its Racial Profiling Inquiry held earlier this year. The Report looks at the human cost of racial profiling on individuals who have experienced it, their families and their communities and the detrimental impacts of this practice on society as a whole.

"When we launched our inquiry, we found that existing research undertaken both here and in jurisdictions outside Canada provided adequate evidence that racial profiling does occur. Right from the start, I have said that what has been noticeably absent from public discussion on this issue is the effect that racial profiling has on those directly impacted by it, and on Ontario society," stated Mr. Norton adding that, "The Report is not another statistical study; it focuses on personal experiences of profiling incidents in a number of contexts."

The purpose of the Commission’s racial profiling inquiry is twofold: to give a voice to individuals who have experienced profiling, and in doing so, raise awareness of the negative consequences of profiling among people who have not been impacted by it. Ultimately, the Commission hopes to bridge the divide between those who deny the existence of profiling and communities that have long felt that they are being targeted.

To this end, the Report provides recommendations aimed at ending the practice of profiling where it already exists, improving the monitoring of situations where it is alleged to occur, and preventing incidents of profiling from occurring in the first place. The Report also sets out the Commission’s commitment to undertake a large public education initiative and to move forward with its project on race that was initiated earlier last year.

"The Commission hopes that the Report will serve as a useful educational tool for individuals and organizations as well as those in positions of influence and authority in helping them understand and address the problem. Racial profiling is wrong. These individuals have had the courage to come forward with often very personal details of their experiences. It’s time we got the message and acted to eliminate this practice," continued Mr. Norton.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission defines racial profiling as any action taken for reasons of safety, security or public protection that relies on stereotypes about race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, religion or place of origin, rather than on reasonable suspicion.

Local hip-hop promoter and Sony/BMG Canada head honcho Jonathan Ramos says that Almon might have a point about rap artists and the border. In recent years, he's been forced to cancel shows by Dead Prez, The Roots, Ghostface Killah, Nas and Common, among others, due to troubles with customs and immigration officials. The main problem, he says, is the lack of consistency that arises when individual border guards are left to make decisions as to who enters the country.

"Our border people have a terrible reputation internationally. Entertainers, anyway, consider Canada harder to get into than any country in the world," said Ramos, although he concedes, "it's gotten better. The profile of the average border guard has changed radically. There are now people of colour and females, when before it used to be, from my experience, a 45-year-old white guy who lived somewhere along the border. So whenever they saw anybody, some indie-rock dude with grimy hair who climbed out of a van, immediately they were, like: `Drugs.' Now we sometimes get people who say: `Hey, man, could I have your autograph.'"

Due the United States, Canada and Germany officially legalizing racial profiling, a movement and innovative MURDERCAP Records founder Jerome Almon has announced a website will be launched in May to end the practice.

According to Almon. :The movement will target key sectors of each for a 'blackout'." He affirms the website at http://www.operationblakkout.com will detail strategies and serve as a permanent substitute to the State Department "in regards to informing and protecting Blacks abroad due to its backing Canadian and German efforts to profile African Americans." He believes Germany officially legalized racial profiling of Blacks in March and granted the vaunted Bundespolizei authorization to target Blacks for wholesale race-based "papers" checks http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20120328-41619.html

The site will also expand on the CNN AC360 most viewed and commented on IREPORT on the Trayvon Martin tragedy by detailing Black leaders and Hip Hop celebrities who actually endorsed and perpetuate racial profiling http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-771069 Emails and documentation indicated that many of the most vocal Black activists in the Trayvon Martin case actually took actions and made statements to sustain the practice of racial profiling of U.S. Blacks and Hip Hop artists by Canada. Among those activist names are Russell Simmons, Spike Lee, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, among the artist targeted Murdercap Records, The Game, Jay Z, 50 Cent, DMX, and Las Vegas Kingpin Appollocruz.

Almon famously filed a $900 million lawsuit against Canada and the State Department that both attempted to settle three separate times. Almon turned down settlement, warning that it would "lead to tragedies" such as the Trayvon Martin case and the near 20 similar cases that have happened since his death.

The site was contracted to be designed in 2011 by a company whose major client includes the president and ruling party of one of the world's largest economies.

"The site will call for Black Americans and all opponents of racial profiling to boycott Canada's Caribana festival, Canadian tourism, goods, and sign an online petition calling on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to reverse the court ruling allowing racial profiling," stated Almon. "The site will detail the efforts of African American celebrities and politicians who have worked to sustain the practice of racial profiling including Attorney General Eric Holder."

The site's first investigative report, "A Tale Of Two Perjuries," details Holder's efforts to cover up racist misconduct, theft of millions of tax payer dollars, and massive corruption by White officials while relentlessly pursuing the arrest and conviction of Black officials.

The site will call for a "no snitching" policy towards the DOJ by Blacks, by ending all cooperation with the department on all levels.

The site's most controversial initiative calls for the complete replacement of Black leadership, for corruption, insincerity, and the wholesale corruption of Blacks. Profiling leads to the deaths and false imprisonment of thousands of Blacks annually.

Toronto, ON – Canadian concert goers have had a rough week and they’ve taken to Facebook and Twitter to vent their frustrations about the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Undisclosed border issues have robbed Canada of live performances by some rising hip-hop stars including A$AP Rocky, Danny Brown and Hopsin. They join a long list of American rap artists who have either been detained or turned away while attempting to cross into Canada.

A$AP Rocky is one of the hottest young artists out right now and his Canadian fan base is quite large. This was proven by the response he received from a January performance at Toronto’s Opera House and an appearance at Drake’s OVO Fest this past August. He also played several other Canadian dates including Ottawa’s infamous Bluesfest, Ottawa’s Ritual Nightclub and Montreal’s Corona Theatre. He’s had a packed audience each time and left the country without incident.

So why would we suddenly turn away his Long Live A$AP Tour after already allowing him in the country?

A$AP Rocky, Danny Brown and ScHoolboy Q were denied entry into Montreal on Sept. 30 and again yesterday, Oct. 2 on route to Toronto.

Did something occur during previous Canadian tour dates that was concerning to CBSA? Was it the pending 2nd degree robbery charge Rocky pled not guilty to this past July? A charge like that might be enough for a border agent to turn someone away, especially if they had prior convictions, but plenty of entertainers with similar (or worse) charges have entered our country and left without any issue. And this is where the anger often stems from: the argument that CBSA is either racist and/or profiling/targeting hip-hop. The general feeling is that other forms of entertainment are treated more leniently when it comes to border crossings. There are always exceptions but people don’t seem to hear about them nearly as often.

This isn’t the first time Q has had a problem getting into Canada. He was denied entry back in July as he was joining Kendrick Lamar on the Under The Influence of Music Tour. Footage of the border issue was included in Top Dawg Entertainment’s “Under The Influence of Music (Episode 1)”:

Ultimately, the decision at the border robbed fans of Q, A$AP Rocky, the A$AP Mob and Danny Brown. Rocky took to Twitter to announce that the show would be postponed. The last Canadian date on the Tour is Vancouver on Oct. 20th at The Vogue. It remains to be seen if the show will be cancelled or postponed.

Later that day, Tuesday, LA’s Hopsin was also turned away at the border. Hop was on his way to Toronto for a highly anticipated concert at The Opera House with Dizzy Wright and SwizZz. Early Tuesday, Hop had tweeted about looking forward to finally performing in the city with his Funk Volume family. By early evening he retweeted a barrage of messages from angry fans that had waited patiently for the chance to see the young MC live. Unfortunately some fans didn’t get word of the cancellation until they had already reached the venue.

This wouldn’t be the first time that the Canadian border patrol has played a role in cancelling a hip-hop show. Waka Flocka Flame was denied entry last October and Game was denied entry, again, in April 2011. Those come to mind quickly but the list is much longer. You’ll even find 50 Cent on there. Fif’s had border issues and campaigns backed by politicians that attempted to ban him from Toronto.

Paperwork

A big part of it can come down to the concert promoter making sure the paperwork is all in order. Work permits and claims being overlooked could give a border agent reason to deny entry. But at the same time, having your paperwork right doesn’t always ensure success either. People have been turned away or detained despite having the paperwork in order. People with priors have also made it through to perform without any paperwork at all. I’ve witnessed it first hand.

All that being said, with a bit of digging you can find some examples of other genres being hit, just not as often. This past June, The Used cancelled all Canadian dates on their North American tour after frontman Bert McCracken was denied entry due to his criminal record. And CBSA doesn’t take small things lightly. Although it is unclear if this was the reason MCracken was denied, he was told he wouldn’t be able to enter the country for 10 years due to trespassing misdemeanors from 10 years ago:

“When I say criminal record, I’m talking teensy, eensy misdemeanors they still have on my record from, like, 2001 and 2003 – trespassing”

Had Bret been allowed to enter Canada, the most likely scenario is he would have performed and then left without any issues. The fans benefit, the economy benefits (if even just a bit), and everyone’s happy.

Personally, I don’t think a misdemeanor charge like trespassing, if no one was hurt, warrants a foreigner being barred from our country at all, let alone a decade later. I myself was once almost charged with trespassing when I was younger for something as harmless as playing basketball on school grounds during the summer. It’s almost laughable to think that an incident like that could have potentially barred me from travelling years later, or at least hindered my attempts.

Rules are upheld inconsistently at the border

Rules are rules, that can certainly be respected. But the respect dwindles away when the rules are upheld inconsistently or with bias.

The Toronto International Film Festival was a huge success again this year. One of the many celebrities in attendance was Hugh Grant, who, much like A$AP Rocky, had a physical altercation with paparazzi. The charge was dropped June 1, 2007 due to insufficient evidence but it wasn’t Grant’s first run in with the law. Grant had no problem getting into the country, nor did a few other celebrities in attendance who had criminal records. Realistically, considering what they were coming to town for, not one of them posed a threat to our country and CBSA should be applauded for giving them access. An event like TIFF is big for Toronto’s economy and tourism, and the names are a large part of the draw. But it does come across a bit inconsistent.

Linsday Lohan has had various legal issues – recent legal issues – but has no problem scoring work permits to shoot movies in Toronto. Again, Lohan’s presence in Toronto is likely not threatening to anyone’s wellbeing – unless she’s driving — so I have no problem with her being allowed in our country. But do professional rappers always get the same treatment or consideration? Many people will give you a definitive ‘no’ out of anger or frustration but their anwers are mostly based on speculation. There’s always a need for evidence.

$900-million dollar lawsuit challenged Canada’s border policies

Canada’s border practices have already been challenged legally by at least one rapper. Back in 2007, Detroit MC and record label owner Jerome Almon launched a lawsuit against Canadian immigration officials for alleged racial profiling. Almon had been detained 117 of 120 times crossing into Canada. Almon also claimed that Canadian officials drew up Bills C-254 and C-95, in an attempt to ban all US rappers and their CDs from Canada by categorizing hip-hop as hate speech. Needless to say, if that is true, the bills certainly didn’t go far.

His interview with CBC summarized the lawsuit quite clearly:

“My complaint is rather simple. I’m alleging that Canada Customs and Immigration are barring me from entering Canada to conduct business because I’m a black rapper from Detroit.”

A call was made Tuesday to CBSA for comment on the recent incidents but the call was not returned. This quote from Almon sheds a bit of light on what types of arguments are being put forward to deny or delay a rapper’s entry:

“Their claim is that I have not turned in a police clearance to enter Canada as required by Canada Immigration and that I have a criminal record.”

But several articles I read had already indicated he did not have a criminal record.

So despite not having a criminal record, Almon was hassled on 117 of 120 occasions as he attemped to conduct business and record music in both Ottawa and Toronto. Again we see inconsistencies from one person to the next. One can only hope that Almon would have been treated the same way if his skin had been white or if his profession was something with less negativity associated to it. But only the people making the decisions know why those decisions are made. No one is going to blatantly say “I’m a bit of a racist so I tend to give black people a harder time at the border than white people.” I suspect that would be a quick way out of a job at CBSA. But CBSA should still be accountable for making sure they don’t employ people with that type of mentality.

CBSA & The integrity questionnaire

It seems they’re trying to do that. The Globe and Mail published a story Monday about CBSA’s decision to ask its employees to take a voluntary “integrity questionnaire” which essentially asks people to come clean about how evil they are. This is almost unheard of in Canadian civil and public service but the keyword seems to be voluntary. Again, and not speaking from experience, but if I had committed a crime and was attempting to avoid prosecution, I wouldn’t come clean and give myself up on a questionnaire. That seems a bit dumb. But hopefully there is a section in the 23-page document that deals with the issue at hand: are people making decisions based on race and culture?

It is unclear if Hopsin has any immediate plans to set a new Toronto date but a source close to A$AP Rocky has confirmed he’ll likely be able to cross the border soon.

Montreal, QC – We’ve been pretty good about reporting on rappers getting turned away at the border, but we really don’t even touch on half of the times that it occurs.

Cormega is the latest American rapper to be denied intro into Canada, while attempting to enter the country for the purpose of performing. Cormega was scheduled to perform today in Montreal along with Main Source co-founder Large Professor (poster after the jump) as part of their Canadian tour.

If the tour continues, Ottawa is scheduled for April 3rd while Toronto has been set for April 4th with special guest K-Cut (of Main Source). Other artists performing include THEO3, Philly Moves, Fresh Kils and more. As far as we know, Large Professor & co. will still be performing even if Cormega is absent but don’t quote us on that. The tour is scheduled to Hamilton on April 5th, Calgary on April 6th and Vancouver on April 7th (sponsored by HipHopCanada).

Cormega fired off this tweet earlier today:

cormega @realcormega

Montreal denied me entry to the country I'm back in NY will be back in a few days

On February 22 and 23 2012, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“CERD”) considered Canada’s nineteenth and twentieth periodic reports on the government’s efforts to combat racial discrimination.

The African Canadian Legal Clinic (“ACLC”) prepared an alternative report, met with Committee members and was present at the CERD meetings to ensure that Canada was made to account for issue of anti-Black racism and the continued disadvantaged position occupied by African Canadians.

According to the Clinic’s Executive Director, Ms. Margaret Parsons, the ACLC drew the Committee’s attention to “growing rates of poverty, increased rates of incarceration, and high rates of anti-Black hate, as well as the complete absence of reliable disaggregated race-based data, and the phenomenon termed the ‘school-to-prison pipeline.’”

The Committee members, all of whom are experts in the field of human rights and racial discrimination, raised a number of concerns with respect to Canada’s treatment of it’s African Canadian population.

Mr. Anwar Kemal, the Committee’s Rapporteur for Canada, noted the glaring absence of disaggregated statistics from Canada’s state report while Ms.Fatimata-Binta Victoria Dah, the expert from Burkina Faso, urged the government to be careful not to exclude data that will make it more difficult for the State to report on its implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. This concern was also echoed by other Committee members who drew attention to and questioned the government’s recent decision to abolish the mandatory long-form census.

Mr. Pastor Elias Murillo Martinez, the expert from Colombia, questioned Canada on the extent to which the historical contributions of African Canadians are reflected in school curricula and upcoming commemorations such as the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Mr. Patrick Thornberry, the expert from United Kingdom, questioned Canada on the high rates of suspension, expulsion and drop-outs and pointed to the success of the Africentric school in the Toronto District School Board as a possible best practice in this area.

Finally, Ms. Anastasia Crickley, the expert from Ireland, congratulated Canada on the adoption of its National Action Plan Against Racism in 2005, noted that this action plan ended in 2010, and questioned what Canada is doing to address the structural racism and the power imbalance with respect to Canada’s racialized groups today.

Many of the Committee members raised concerns about the overrepresentation of African Canadians in the criminal justice system and urged Canada to take immediate action to address this glaring disparity

Almost half of the Committee’s time was devoted to questioning Canada on issues relating to its African Canadian community. Ms. Parsons expressed great disappointment at the lack of attention paid to these issues by the Canadian delegation in its response to Committee questions and by the Canadian media in its coverage of this session.

Clem Marshall, a Toronto man who launched a human rights complaint after he was pulled over by police in Parkdale in 2009, has settled with the board and the force for an undisclosed amount.

Racial Profiling: Toronto Police Settle Human Rights Complaint With Former Teacher Who Was Pulled Over

Clem Marshall alleges he was told by an officer that he didn’t look like someone who could afford the expensive car he was driving when he was pulled over in Parkdale.

The city’s police board and the force have settled with a Toronto man who alleges in a human rights complaint that he was racially profiled when he was pulled over in Parkdale in 2009.

Clem Marshall, a former teacher with the Toronto public board, says an officer justified the stop by telling him he didn’t look like someone who could afford the 2009 Nissan Altima he was driving.

“It’s not racial profiling. . . . Two black guys driving a car like mine in Parkdale meant crack. . . . That’s just the way it is,” the officer told Marshall, according to his complaint.

In an interview Monday, the Africentric scholar said “the taste of humiliation is extraordinary. It’s like the taste of nothing else.” Marshall, in his 60s, said that at his age the feelings were completely unexpected.

He handed over his driver’s licence, ownership and insurance, but when he asked why he was being pulled over, the officer allegedly yelled, “Who do you think you are, f---ing Obama?”

The settlement was agreed to partway through the human rights tribunal hearing. The terms are confidential and neither the Toronto Police Service nor the board has admitted any liability.

Police spokesman Mark Pugash said the force settles in cases such as this for a variety of reasons, but noted there was no finding of fact because the agreement was reached before adjudication.

In the past, Police Chief Bill Blair has conceded that racial profiling occurs but “his view on its unacceptability remains clear,” said Pugash, adding the force regularly reviews its training.

Sharan Basran, Marshall’s lawyer who is with the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, said the critical piece is that her client didn’t know why he was stopped.

The officers later told him he was pulled over because he didn’t make a full stop at the intersection. In the end, Marshall was issued a $120 ticket because his ownership wasn’t signed.

Under the Highway Traffic Act, police have an obligation to inform a driver why they’re being stopped as soon as reasonably practical, said lawyer Howard Morton, who is with the Law Union but not connected to the case. Then they have the right to demand a driver’s documents, Morton said.

Marshall said he wanted to do something practical with the money and plans to use it to organize events where African Canadian youth can share their experiences with the justice system and learn about their rights.

The legal rights of youth have been in the spotlight recently after a number of Star investigations show Toronto police stop and document, or “card,” black and brown people at disproportionately high rates. Civil rights activists have argued the stops contravene the Charter.

Organizations such as the Law Union say police should advise people they have the right to refuse to answer and are free to go.

Basran said the support centre commonly hears from African Canadian men who complain they’ve been stopped by police and questioned without a “good reason.”

In Marshall’s case, police issued a ticket but they also carded him, said Basran. Police enter personal information about the people they “card” into a massive database used for investigations. The Star’s research shows that in the majority of cases, carding happens during non-criminal encounters.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, and at the request of the Toronto Police and the Toronto Gang Unit, we regret to announce that our NXNE “SmashMouth Mentality” showcase scheduled for June 13 at Rivoli has been cancelled. For any inquiries regarding this matter please direct all messages to Brenden Hewko of SmashMouth Entertainment – Brenden@SmashMouthEnt.com

It baffles me why the Toronto police have shut down tonight’s show. I have personal relationships with at least 6 of the acts on this bill, the promoter and booking agent Brenden of Smashmouth Ent. This would have been an amazing POSITIVE Hip-Hop show supporting the Toronto scene and up and coming artists on the bill. There have been way more gangster shows in the past month and they have went on with no problems at all….so why tonight’s show?

Montreal hip hop artists gathered Tuesday to protest what they say is an effort by authorities to ban their music from certain bars and clubs, and thereby criminalize an entire subculture.

More than 50 protesters and performers congregated at noon outside the Montreal courthouse, home to offices of the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux. The impetus was the case of a West Island bar that was made to stipulate it would not play hip hop as a condition of receiving a temporary liquor licence. Activists, calling themselves the Montreal Hip Hop Movement, said the practice is commonplace.

"We cannot take the fact that they're still typecasting this music, this culture, treating it like something that is to be feared and rejected," said Dice B., a local hip hop personality and radio host. "If they have a problem with individuals, they should go after those individuals, not the whole culture."

Banning hip hop because street gang members listen to it is like stopping bars from playing rock music because the Hells Angels are fans, said community activist Will Prosper.

He called on the Quebec government, Montreal's mayor and the police to put a stop to "this discriminatory practice towards a group of artists practising their hip hop and urban music."

Their ire stemmed from the convoluted case of Le Pionnier bar, a Pointe Claire institution and music venue formerly known as Clydes, and, before that, The Pioneer. When the new managers tried to obtain a temporary liquor licence from the Régie des alcools, the licensing board checked with the police, as it always does. Police raised warning flags, saying Le Pionnier recently tried to stage a tribute show for a dead rapper, not knowing that he had ties to street gangs and the show could have turned violent, indicating management was not aware of potential problems.

Régie lawyer Joyce Tremblay said the licensing board, in conjunction with the police, wrote up a list of conditions permitting the bar owners to get a 90-day permit quickly, including a no hip hop rule. Montreal police deny they had anything to do with a hip hop ban.

"I don't think it's for police to decide what music people listen to," Commander Iannan Tuony said. "I don't think it's even legal." Police are concerned with safety, and all bar owners are free to hire extra security or install metal detectors if a threat is feared. Both the police and Tremblay said bar owner Diane Marois willingly signed the conditions, saying she didn't want trouble and was more interested in hosting jazz and blues shows.

Conditions calling for music restrictions are usually based on noise complaints, not content, Tremblay said, adding that Le Pionnier was an isolated case.

But Fo Niemi of the Centre for Research Action on Race Relations said his group had found five instances in the last four years where the Régie, in conjunction with police, listed banning hip hop music as a condition for obtaining a liquor licence. Montreal bars Le Medley, Le Parking, QZone, 1234 and Vision were affected.

Because bar owners are hesitant to go to court or human rights commissions for fear of repercussions, Niemi suggested setting up a working committee to ensure safety in clubs "without having an outright ban of a musical realm, because it could have serious repercussions on the hip hop artists and the whole black culture in general."

It wouldn't just affect the black community, performer Dice B noted. The majority of young hip hop fans, and even performers on the French side of the spectrum, are white, he said.

"If you criminalize that music, you are marginalizing your kids. And they are the future."

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